About Us

In planning this trip, I have read countless blogs in my pursuit of the RTW family travel holy grail, and I always go to the ‘About Us’ page after reading posts, viewing pictures, and living vicariously through these amazing people who have made their dream happen. And now we are also following that calf path, where so many have gone before us yet somehow managed to have their own unique experiences. How many paths around the world are there? Like becoming a parent for the first time (or the fourth), this journey that we are taking, where so many have trod before us, will end up being our own.

Who are we and what led us here?  We are a busy family of six, ranging in age from 42 down to 6, happily ensconced in our lives here in Seattle.  Jon and I met when we were 17; six years later we were married.

Travel wasn’t part of our culture growing up; neither of us had ventured outside North America.  Our first travels together were road trips to California to see his sister and young nephews, or to ski with friends in Canada.  We honeymooned in Jamaica and managed to stray outside the idyllic cacoon of the all-inclusive resort we were staying at. The abject poverty just on the other side of the fence was shocking and made us realize how little of the world we were seeing; maybe that first glimpse of reality was the beginning of it all?

Everyone knew we were Americans because of the tennis shoes. Ouch! Europe-bound, July 1996

If our newly discovered worldliness isn’t apparent, at least our relaxed demeanor is! Crete, five weeks into our Europe trip, August 1996

It was not until two years later, after I was done with grad school (and conveniently unemployed), that we took the first trip abroad. We think our budget was about $40/day as we backpacked through 8 Western European countries in six weeks and had the time of our lives. We were smitten.

Failed in my efforts to talk Jon into a couple of years of living abroad, we returned to our mortgage, friends and family; Jon resumed his first job at Deloitte and Touche and I started my career as a clinical pharmacist.  Still, the awe of that first trip never faded. When our credit cards were paid off, we booked a trip to Turkey in 1998.

Baby on board! Visiting the Alhambra in Granada, Spain 1999

A year later, I was over half-way through my first pregnancy when we took our last trip together to Spain and Portugal.  I felt David kick for the first time in Sevilla on my birthday.  I took it as a sign that our journeys as a family would continue with kids in tow.

We never left North America with David, but he spent many hours in this pack trekking about the US. David and Jon in San Francisco, June 2000

In reality, we never made it further north than BC or further south than Mexico with the kids.   At first it was just too hard and seemed a little selfish or risky to haul them along on our treks; later it seemed logistically impossible as they entered school and sports.  The idea simmered on the back burner, until Vivian, our youngest, was born.  Ready to look ahead to the next phase of parenthood, we hatched the plan that would allow us to see the world with our children, even going so far as to pick a departure date.  David would be in the 8th grade (last year before high school), and Vivian would be in the 1st grade.

Why? I guess our “why” is the same as many other families’…we want to introduce our children to the world, allowing them to shape their own realities and impressions of global issues and various cultures and religions, rather than learning it all from books and media.  And, we just want to spend time with them.  Jon and I both are pretty engaged and involved in our kids’ lives.  Regardless, nine years go by and you realize that your children have lived with you half as long as they will!  As much as we love our sports and activities, we decided to give up one year of that, for a chance to experience something new together as a family, rare and unscripted.  Can’t wait to see where our own path around the world takes us!

As far as the eye can see. Zabriskie Point, Death Valley, CA – April 2013